All began accidentally, as I told in this post, in 2007 with the discovery of a fascinating project like GalaxyZoo.
Starting from the initial classification project numerous side projects have developed, such as the overlapping galaxies, in wich I'm particularly linked, directed by the American astronomer Dr. William Keel (interviewed by me in this post), with the result of having created the bigger Zooniverse project.

The storyis relatedof courseto astronomybut thefundamental coreis people.Through the projectand therelatedforumI got to"know"people of various nationalitiesbut with a commoninterest in astronomyand sciencein general.

Meanwhile, theforumrelated to the firstproject stands outforspecial attentionnot only tothe topicsbut, above all,for the soft-spoken language, even in the most heated discussions, and for the particularly correct and polite approach reserved to thenewcomers(newbie). This attitudeis rarely observedin the variousforums on thenet.That occurs not onlydue to the qualityof the membersbut, inparticular,due to the moderators,Alicefirst of all,thatexplains it very wellin this interviewhis moderator approach.Another added valueis the possibility tostay in touch withprofessional scientistswhoare not onlya valuable source ofinformations, but also of a great willingnessout of the ordinary.Andthat is whatconcernsthe story.

As mentioned before I found particularly interesting the overlapping galaxies project and I have dedicated to the project part of my spare time to try to identify the individual candidates and try to provide support through a dedicated tool for the extraction of the data reported on the forum by the various participant.The vast number of galaxies reported make possible to make several observation campaigns needed to have solid bases for the scientific publication of the results.

So far, apparently, nothing unusual.

During the first observation campaign Dr. Keel send me an e-mail in wich he stated that he was looking one of the galaxies reported by me and he sending me, even, a row image taken by the telescope.

This started to be weird.

It was a great feeling as well as a great sign of attention from Dr. Keel.
Later on, in another e-mail, Dr Keel asked me to know my real name, instead of the nicknamed used, as many of you, on internet, to be able to cite in the incoming publication.

Also this a sign of special attention, thing steel seems normal ?

When the study was submitted for evaluation I discovered, with great surprise, that I'm not to be simply mentioned but that I appear among the authors, all real scientist. I would excpect a mere mention in the acknoledgments, that already would have been much, but certainly not this one.

All steel appear completely normal ?

To me it seemed that not and I asked myself "How many others would have done the same ?"
I don't know if a Professor or other prominent figures in science or informative field would do the same in Italy. I have strong doubts.
Dr Keel as proven not only to be a great astronomer but, above all, to be a great man, showing an out of the ordinary care toward an unknow man who has never met in person and who has contibuted only in a minor part to the preparation of the study.
This allowed me, with pride, to appear as an author in a scientific publication "Galaxy Zoo: A Catalog of Overlapping Galaxy Pairs for Dust Studies". Unbelievable.
I could thank Dr. Keel in private but I decided to do it publicly because I believe that what he did deserve a special mention.

"Thanks Bill. You're great"

And he's great not only for this approach but because he teachs to his students and coworkers too.
As a matter of fact I recently discover. googling, that Dr. Anna M. Manning, student and collaborator of Dr. Keel, in his thesis "Measuring Ultraviolet Extinction with Galex in Overlaping Galaxies", of course about overlapping galaxies, mentioned me in the acknoledgments.

"Thanks Anna. You're very nice"

Sometimes I discover to be mentioned, along with other participants to GalaxyZoo, in several scientific publications, I'm proud of this but further strengthens my beliefe that in Italy that would not have happened.
As proof just look at the poor attention being given in Italy to the project, nearly snubbed because uninportant.
The "Citizen Science" is a reality that can not be ignored. Thousands of people put their time and their kwnoledge to the service of science for the sake of it and without asking anything in return. But that is another story.

Friday, February 22, 2013

It 's beena long timesince the last postbut the recentcelestial phenomenainvolvingour planetand the manyquestionsaddressedby colleaguesinspired thispost dedicatedto spacecloser to usand, sepcifically,to thosecelestial objects thatmay come into contactwith the Earth.I'm not an expert of course andthe informations givenare only a smallpart of the argument, I tried to gatherthe information that Ifoundmost interesting andthatI hope will beuseful to clarifysome concepts andunravelin the great quantity of​​information that has beenspread, not alwayscorrect. (Clicking on the pictures you can see themin their original size). Versione italiana qui.

Planet:
celestial body that: is in orbit around the Sun; has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape; has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. The Planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Dwarf Planet:
celestila body that: is in orbit around the Sun; has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape; has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit; is not a satellite. The Dwart Planets are: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris.

Small Solar System Bodies: all other objects, except satellite, orbiting the Sun and that do not fall in the previous two categories.

We startwith the identificationof the main areasof the solar systemin whichthey are distributedthe Small Solar System Bodies.

Main Belt: it'sbetween the orbitsof Mars and Jupiterat a distanceof between1.7AU and4.0AU from the Sunandwithorbital periodsranging between3 and 6years.It's theareawhere there area majority ofasteroids,althoughrecently findingssuggesteventhe presence of somecomets.

The spacearound us isfar from empty. The Solar System ispopulated by billionsof bodieslarger or smaller, as you can guessfrom the data providedin the definitions, which are the remainsof a planetary nebulafrom whichit originated.Due to theirnumber, the encounter withthese objectscan not bedefinitelyexcludedand there are manyevidencesof such impacts. The simplestis below,or should I sayabove, the eyesof all: the Moon. The craters, of whichis covered, are due tocollisions withcelestial bodiesinmore or less recenttimesandthe Moon formation, according to recent theories,couldbe due to theimpact ofaMars-sizedbodywith the Earth.There is vast evidenceof the impactswithin the Solar System, as showes in the imagesof the followingexamples: Phobos, one of the moons ofMars;Deimos,one of the satellitesof Saturnthat looks like the"Death Star"from Star Wars;Jupiterstruck byfragments of CometShoemaker-Levy between 16and22 July 1994.

On the Moon, the absence of an atmosphere and an active geological history have allowed their preservation.On
Earth impacts are less obvious and more difficult to detect as they are
subject to severe erosion and only the availability of new types and
systems of increasingly sophisticated research have led to the
discovery. The
most famous, known and easily identifiable is the Barringer Crater,
known also as Meteor Crater, 1.200 m wide and 170 m deep found in Arizona.
The formation dates back to about 50,000 years ago and was caused by a nickel-iron asteroid about the size of 50 m.The Earth, like the other bodies in the Solar System, is constantly bombarded by material from space. It is estimated that every day about 100 tons of dust and small particles hit the atmosphere. The phenomenon is, therefore, not uncommon.When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere its speed, already high, is accelerated by the attraction gravitation. It
is not possible to give a unique reference parameter in view of the
numerous factors to be taken into account such as the direction and
angle of arrival, the shape, etc., but to give an order of magnitude
average speeds oscillate between 10 Km/s and 70 km/s (36,000 Km/h and 252,000 Km/h).At
the entrance into the atmosphere the air in front of the object is
strongly compressed (ram pressure) and, like all gases, heats up to
temperatures above 1600° C able to vaporize and burn the rocks in
contact (ablation). Due to the fact that the meteoroid not burn directly, but the atmosphere that surrounds
it, in the case in which hit the earth's surface the meteorite
would not necessarily be hot or molten, because it would be consumed
only in the outer layers, and this would allow to surviv to extraterrestrial
bodies, some theories suggest that life in fact has been brought on the
Planet by Asteroids and Comets (Panspermia).The
strong pressures involved, the very high temperatures and the chemical
and physical changes which are to occur in the meteoroid can also lead
to its explosion, with the propagation of shock waves of considerable
intensity. Bright
light is created by the ionization of the air that makes the
celestial body considerably larger than the reality.The event occurred in Russia 15 February 2013 was therefore not anything extraordinary. It's an event that occurs on average once every 100 years.The
estimates of NASA on the object before entering into the atmosphere
report a size between 15 m and 17 m and a mass between 7,000 t and 10,000
t. The
entrance into the atmosphere occurred at an estimated speed of 18 km/s
(64,000 km/h) and 32.5 seconds have elapsed from the entrance to the
disintegration, which occurred at an altitude of about 20 km.The
damage was caused by the shock wave that reached supersonic speeds,
creating the so-called "Sonic Bang", similar to that produced by plane when pass the sound barrier, and hit people and things. There weren't , therefore, hit by fragments of the meteor.The numerous references to a "meteor shower" are derived from the fragmentation of the meteoroid and the term has been misused. We
refer to a meteor shower when there is a periodic phenomena such as
meteor showers, like the Perseids also known as the "Tears of St.
Lawrence" in August, during which time you can attend to hundreds of
trails per hour.Without
wishing to make a list of such events is sufficient, as an example,
remember what happened June 30, 1908 in Tunguska (Siberia) where the
shock wave created by the explosion of a fragment of an asteroid or
comet nucleus, which took place an
estimated share of around 10 km, devastated an area of ​​over 2,000 km/sq breaking down, it is estimated, up to 80 million trees. There was at least one person killed and people, even at a distance of 60 kilometers, were hurled to the ground.

10 August 1972 a meteoroid pass throug the atmosphere (Credit: James M. Baker)

As just said in previous posts the information, in Italy, on GalaxyZoo are not very common except little arcticle on some specialized magazines and websites.I thougth so, as before, to write a post only in Italian.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The partecipation to MoonZoo project and the recent interview with Dr William Keel have rewakened my interest for Apollo missions and the desire to remember those exciting moments. The post is not complete, will not and can not be, considering the complexity and vastness of the topic. In particular the post will focus on the description of the Apollo 11 mission that brought the man on the Moon. More information will require a dedicated web site and not a simple post. (Clicking on the pictures you can see them in original size). Italian version here.

From 17th December 1903 to 20th July 1969 less than 66 years have passed.This is the time elapsed between the first man who gets up in flight with an aircraft heavier than air, at beach of Kitty Hawk, and the first man to set foot on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility.Less than 12 years since the first artificial satellite, the Soviet Sputnik I, and less than 10 years since the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

The mission is preceded by a series of preparatory missions that, from Apollo 7 onwards, bring man closer to the objective almost near to touch our natural satellite.

The objective of the mission is to perform a manned moon landing and return to Earth.

The journey that leads the man to the moon starts from very far with the testing and inspection of various components and assembly of the rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) created for this specific purpose enclosing a space of about three million and 600 thousand cubic meters with a height of 160 meters. In the VAB is mounted the Saturn V rocket, the Apollo spacecraft and the umbilical tower.

The first stage (S-IC) is about 42 meters high (138 feet) and has a diameter of about 10 meters (33 feet), contains about 1 million and 500 thousands kilograms (3,307,855 pounds) of liquid oxygen and about 640 thousands kilograms (1,426,069 pounds) of kerosene (RP-1). It's equipped with five F-1 engines, of which 4 ring mounted on gimbals to allow to maneuver the carrier, and a centrally located disk, consuming a total of about 13 tons (29,364 pounds) of propellant per second. The empty weight is about 130 thousands kilograms (288750 pounds), fully loaded and about 2 million 260 thousands kilograms (5,022,674 pounds).

The second stage (S-II) is about 25 meters high (81.5 feet) and has a diameter of about 10 meters (33 feet), contains about 370 thousands kilograms (821,222 pounds) of liquid oxygen and about 70 thousands kilograms (158,221 pounds) of liquid hydrogen. It's equipped with five J-2 engines, 4 of which ring mounted on gimbals to allow the carrier to operate, and a fixed center.The empty weight is about 36 thousands kilograms (79,918 pounds), fully loaded about 477 thousands kilograms (1,059,171 pounds).

The third stage (S-IVB) is about 18 meters high (58.3 feet) and has a diameter of less than 7 meters (21.7 feet) contains approximately 86 thousands kilograms (192,023 pounds) of liquid oxygen and about 20 thousands kilograms (43,500 pounds of liquid hydrogen. It's equipped with a J-2 engine mounted in a central location. The empty weight is about 11 thousands kilograms (25,000 pounds) fully loaded about 117 thousands kilograms (260,523 pounds).

At the top of the third stage there is the Instrument Unit (IU) with a diameter of less than 7 meters (21.7 feet) and a height of about 1 meter (3 feet) that contains guidance systems, navigation, control equipment, telemetry, communications, tracking, crew safety, environmental control and electric central support. The IU has a weight of about 2.000 kilograms (4,306 pounds). In total, the Saturn V rocket and the Instrument Unit (IU) reach about 86 meters (281 feet) high with a total weight load of approximately 180 thousands kilograms (397,974 pounds) and 2 million and 856 thousands kilograms (6,346,674 pounds) with the full propellants.

Above the Saturn V is located the payload of the mission: the Apollo spacecraft. Sequentially over the Instrument Unit are located the Lunar Module (Lunar Module - LM) and the Service Module (Service Modul - SM), the Command Module (Command Module - CM) and the Tower Rescue (Launch Escape System - SLE).

The Lunar Module (LM-5) consists of two stages: Ascending Stage and Descending Stage.It's about 7 meters wide and about 10 m wide from foot to foot. The system at full load, excluding the crew, weighs 14,000 kilograms. For launch the Lunar Module is included, with legs folded, inside a protective cone being designed for use only in vacuum.

The Service Module (SM-107) contains what is necessary to travel through space: oxygen, producing energy, water, propulsion system and consumables. It's less than 8 meters high with a diameter of about 4.5 meters. The gross weight is about 23 thousands kilograms.

The Command Module (CM-107) is the basic structure of the system where there are crew members. It's a pressurized cone-shaped structure less than 4 meters high and with a larger diameter of just over 4 meters.It has a takeoff weight of about 5 thousands and 500 kilograms. The base is composed of a heat shield needed for reentry.

Tower Rescue is located at the top of the whole system and is composed of three solid propellant motors. The tower is taller than 11 meters with a base diameter of about 4 meters. Fully loaded weighs about 4.000 kilograms.

The overall system is about 124 meters high and weighs just under 3 million kilograms.

Apollo 11 roll out from VBA directed to 39A Command and Service Module (CSM) (Credit: NASA)

As mentioned in the VAB is also assembled the umbilical tower, 130 meters high (380 feet), and the whole complex, without the propellants must be delivered to launch pad 39A 5 Km and 600 mt away(3.5 miles).

To realize this not easy transportation a special vehicle (crawlers) is created wide 46 meters (135 feet) long 54mt (160 feet) high 8.5 meters (25 feet) capable of handling 2 million and 500 thousands kilograms (6 million pounds) on a leveling platform. The vehicle is mounted on four trucks each about 3.5 meters tall (10 feet) long and 13.5 meters (40 feet) with 16 motors powered by four 1,000 kw generators generated by two diesel engines to 2750 hp . Top speed is about 1.6 km/h (1 mph) and takes about 6 hours to complete the route.

The launch pad 39A is formed by a concrete block in the shape of a truncated octagonal pyramid covers an area of about 1 square kilometer and which rises up to 30 meters on the surrounding area. Inside there is a canal 30 meters wide can guarantee at launch a stream of about 190,000 liters per minute (50,000 gallons per minute) of water needed to cool the structure and avoid the danger of fire resulting from the use of first stage.

Once reach the launch pad, nine hours before departure, start the procedures for loading the propellants that require approximately 4 hours.

Before going on to describe the launch and the mission is due to introduce its crew.

The crew consists of three elements, two of which will go down physically on the moon while the third remains in orbit around our natural satellite.

The crew gets on board the elevator that takes them on top of the Saturn V, at more than 100m in 25 seconds, 2 hours and 40 minutes and 40 seconds before launch. Sequentially entering Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong (-2h 34m 44s) in the left seat, Michael Collins (-2h 39m 55s) in the right seat and Edwin Aldrin (-2h 23m 46s) in the center seat. Two hours after the launch is closed the hatch of the spacecraft.At 50 seconds after launch power is transferred to the Saturn V, which becomes independent.At 15 seconds, the driving control is carried on board.Starts the final countdown "12, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, all engine running (Taken by the emotion Jack King "Apollo Voice" made mistake by saying " all engine running), lift-off. "
At 9:32:00 East coast (13:32:00 UTC) the mission that will lead man on the moon start.

After 2m 41.63s the first stage is turned off, it's detached and the second stage motors starts (+2 m 43.04s). After 3m 17.9s the Rescue Tower is jettisoned.After 7m 40.62s the central engine of the second stage cutoff, after 9m 8.22s are also turned off the engines outside of the second stage, it's detached and the third stage starts (+9 m 12.2s). After 11m 39.33s the third stage is turned off and after 11m 49.33s happens the insertion in Earth orbit. After 2h 44m 16.2s the third stage is ignited for the second time and cut off after 2h 50m 3.03s. After 2h 50m 23.9s starts the translunar orbital mission that will reach the Moon. The rest of the trip does not pass in plain waiting. During the approach is the separation of the Command and Service Module (CSM) from the third stage, 180° rotation, the attachment of LM, a further 180° rotation and the subsequent continuation of the orbit, after 4h 17m 3s since launch. Is then a new ignition of jets to change course after 25h 44m 58.64s lasting about 3s.

After 75h 49m 50.37s is spent the engine is re-ignited for insertion into lunar orbit and subsequent insertion into circular orbit at 80h 11m 36.75s from launch.

Starting procedures for the lunar landing. Commander Armstrong and Aldrin pilot moving to the Lunar Module that now is called "Eagle", symbol of the U.S. and of the mission, and the Apollo capsule, is called "Columbia", remembering the spaceship "Columbiad" named by Jules Verne in his novel "From Earth to the Moon." After 100h 12m the CSM is separated from LM, which begins its descent toward the surface while the CSM remains in orbit with only Collins on board.

The descent is smooth. But when the landing zone approaches the area chosen by the onboard computer is unsuitable due to the presence of a crater, and so the landing is made manually.

Starting immediately after the operations to allow the first man to set foot on the moon.At 2:56:48 UTC on July 21, 1969 Commander Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and pronounce the historic phrase: "That's one small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind".

During the 2 hours of extravehicular activity (EVA), the two astronauts perform many operations, planting the American flag, installed a laser reflector and a seismic station. Also collect numerous samples of rocks for a total of about 22 kilograms (47 pounds). Among other things abandoned on the lunar surface must be recorded on a plaque installed in memory on a leg of the LM.They rentering the LM at 5:11:13 UTC on July 21, 1969.

Throughout the period of stay on the moon, Michael Collins is in orbit, alone, especially, in the 48 minutes when it loses radio contact with Earth, orbiting behind our natural satellite.

At 17:54:00 UTC the Ascendig Stage of the LM detaches from the Descending Stage to reach Columbia in orbit. The attachment is perfect at 21:35:00 UTC. The crew of the LM moved in the CMS and the LM is ejected.

At 4:55:52 UTC on July 22, 1969 at 135h 23m 42.28s the CMS engine is ignited to perform the orbit of return. At 16:21:12 UTC on July 24, 1969 near the end of mission the Command Module separates from the Service Module and at 16:35:05 UTC, 3m 5.7s to 195h after its launch, SM is back in the atmosphere.

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About Me

I have a lot of interest and Astronomy was one that I particularly love.
I was totally addicted to the GalaxyZoo Project.
If you're curious click on web links to discovery a Universe of beauty and a big science project.
Image header is the Milky Way (http://www.digitalsky11c.com licence)
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